Jian Wang playing the Elgar cello concerto with BBC Symphony and Jiri Belohlavec. Encore Dvorak Silent woods and Bach 1st Prelude live concert Beijing 2006
In that concert he played Dvorak's Waldesruhe. His bowing was so subtle and spontaneous and utterly one of his kind. Together with Pierre Fournier, these two are/were the greatest since the invention of recording. To me that is.
He got the best intonation among all the cellists. In this sense he is like Oistrach for violin. Regarding the missed notes, he is probably like Cortot for piano.
Jian Wang's version is rich and dramatic. Yo Yo Ma's is lyrical beautiful. Both wonderful. Still neither quite reaches Jacquelin Du Pre's performance. She owned this piece.
so far the best after Du pre, may be better than her coz of the clear sound.. I heard almost all interpretations available on youtube... You're the best.. hats off... so much emotion
The bow technique he has adds more power towards the frog, even though it's fantastic tone production for legato. It's also based on how he holds the cello.
this is the first large scale performance I've heard from Jian Wang so I really can't comment on anything but this video. thing is, I'm 5 minutes in and heard a missed note. start at 5:00 and listen, it's 6 seconds later.
I'm not familiar with this music but every stroke of his cello bow is captivating, and heartfelt mesmerizing somehow, as if the composition is of secondary importance to his soulful strokes. This Jian Wang can put an audience into a trance, which is a rare compliment.
Hey Mister! I'm very impressed! The Elgar is perhaps my all time Cello favorite and I'm astonished I have never heard your name before. You my friend did a damn fantastic job! Like what one other comment said, since Jacqueline DuPre, you have got the top spot. Emotion is so damn critical in this piece, and you nailed it! Maybe one day I'll get to meet you! I'm an oddity cause I'm hard-of-hearing, but I can "feel" music very well and emotion is something I'm especially attune to. You also did a wonderful job with your choice of speeds in all the pieces, too many do butcher this concerto. I'm so glad I found this video! I will note, I do wish the conductor have or instructed the orchestra to be more dynamic, I almost felt as if the orchestra was not "feeling" Jian Wang as he was playing, and I think that's a big no no! I have a suspicion that Jacqueline Du Pre was an inspiration to you. Great job!
He is definitely one of the best alive. He was featured in Isaac Stern's From Mao to Mozart, and subsequently sponsored to attend Juilliard and Yale. I ADORE this guy.
Brenden John The issue at 2:51 actually wasn't the fault of the artist, I believe that it was an inadequacy of the instrument. Sometimes if a cello (or any other stringed instrument) has one tiny imperfection, moments like that can crop up. He did a wonderful job throughout, and I think his cello just choked up at the most dramatic second it possibly could have. Still didn't do too badly though, even there.
I certainly wouldn't know or notice any sort of bowing technique right or wrong or of personal taste. The "ch" sound you mention is confusing to me, not quite sure I understand. Perhaps his bow is badly inadequate for his cello, not a good match? I know classical musicians are critical, and are very hard workers that easily takes many long years before their master starts to come alive. I have much appreciation for classical musicians (one "type" of musician that can actually read music! (small joke, but a real point)) and I do notice many videos have comments in regards to technical things; such as how they hold the instrument, how they bow, how they dance too much while playing, etc... I think this focus of thought needs to hype down, cause that stuff is hardly as important to the audio sounds and their interpretation of what they are playing comes out to the ears of the listeners. (and I get that certain techniques can affect and hinder the performance and the sounds) I think of all the versions on youtube playing this piece, with the personal exception of Jacquilne Du Pre, that Mr. Jian Wang is one of the best. When you play this well, I personally think one cross' the line of insulting professional quality by simply stating any sort of technique, just close your eyes and enjoy a piece I consider a rarity on being performed brilliantly well. I'm not necessary pointing my finger at you "ClassicalGaming" as I do find what you said intriguing and has me curious to learn more on what it actually means.
Thank you for telling me this. This is certainly an eye opener to a whole new subject and area is the lives of a musician. I play clarinet and we only have the low F sounding flat issue (currently many new models have come up with a fix). So, for you to point out this kind of very useful information is much appreciated and rather fascinating. I love learning new things that are likely not found in any kind of text book, so again, thank you for brings up such a predicament to the attention of anyone reading it, including myself...
OK this is SOOOO PRO! the only person who compares on this piece is Jaqueline du PRe, but i cant really decide since jaqueline du pre's recordings are a little old and unclear. This is denfinately better than the performances of the other great celloests, yo yo ma and Mistislav Leopodavich Rostropovich, even though I still thing Rostropovich to be the best of all
You do not judge a musician on how many notes he gets right! Anyone can miss out a note every here and there. What makes a musician is how they play, the passion, the bond between them, the instrument and the sweet music that is played, not how many mistakes they make!
Hands down best performance since du Pre. Barenboim should be conducting this man, not Walk-the-Dog Ma. Though Jian is not as technically astounding as du Pre, he seems to have that rare ability to pour his soul into his playing. I just wish this orchestra/conductor was more in tune to his performance style as they seem to be lagging behind esp towards the end of the first movement.
If I'm right, the venue he's playing in is the RSAMD ( now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)? Thats so exciting, I only wish I'd known he was playing there!!!!!! Fabulous!
same way as seeing a target that the shooter missed. Don't get me wrong though, I was just making a molehill out of a molehill...the performance is fantastic
He demonstrates great skill in this video, however, it is lacking emotion. His playing remains really harsh in places where it should transition to a smooth and gentle sound. Though I must say, he is truly amazing!
I don't know... I don't like this version that much :/ It's like... the standard version of Elgar (Jacqueline) but with a lot of interpretations as well... If that makes sense. For ex. the beginning he puts emphasis on a lot of notes that I can see why people like but... I'm not sure if that's what Elgar really wanted. The beauty of music is that it's YOU but it's also the composer as well... I'm pretty sure Elgar wanted the beginning airy and fresh. (a call yet not a call.) Yet, the musical structure of the piece is very standard. Which seems as if he put slight extreme interpretations to the standard ver. at various spots (at least in my taste) (Like the E melodic minor scale) I can see why people like him and I can definitely see the beauty but, I don't think it's so great... It's as if he's too afraid to make further interpretations yet, he still makes few here and there...
Until I heard Jian Wang, Navarre had been my favourite cellist for the Elgar....Times change.....there are some talents on the horizon mainly from Korea and, dare I say it Venezuela.
